Monday, January 23, 2012

Weekend roundup

It was a case of anything you can do I can do better as Real
Madrid retained their five point lead over Barcelona, as both teams won 4-1.

With all the excitement of the midweek clásico it was time
for Mourinho to refocus and set his sights back on La Liga. Reports from Marca
suggested that there was a rift growing at Real between Mou and his Spanish
players, Mou blamed Ramos for Barcelona’s first goal. Ramos retorted by
questioning the inclusion of Carvalho after 4months out, he also thinks the
Spanish players are treated differently. However, the majority of these rumours
were quashed with an efficient performance against Athletic. A theme of 2012
for Real has been poor starts and they continued with this ‘tradition’. The
back four without the Portuguese duo of Pepe and Carvalho were rocked early by
a fine counter attack by Athletic. Javi Martínez and Herrera linked up quickly
before Martinez whipped a delightful ball for Fernando Llorente to finish
smartly with his left foot. Athletic should have added to their deserved lead
moments later but De Marcos fluffed his chance. Marcelo who was partially at
fault for made amends as he scored a fantastic goal after 27th
minutes, Real were lucky to go into the break on level terms as Llorente missed
a guilt edged chance. Real started the second half extremely well as Kaka was
brought down in the area, Cristiano finished with aplomb. From then on Real
dominated, credit must be given to Athletic who continued to attack to get back
into the game, but, it just created space for Real to exploit. De Marcos capped
off a poor game by getting sent off for another penalty this time the foul was
on Benzema and Cristiano finished superbly again. Callejón a late substitute
for Kaka made it four with a smart finish after a fine pass from another
substitute Higuaín.

However, despite a solid performance some of the Madridista’s
were unhappy with Mou who enduring some booing, who responded in typical
confidence “They booed Ronald, Zidane and Cristiano, why shouldn’t they boo
me”.

Barcelona who had only won 3 away games prior to their trip
to Málaga, and had been underwhelming in them all bar victory at the Bernabau were
fantastic against the nouveau-riche Málaga. An inspired Messi scored a
breathtaking hat-trick; a fine header were the little Argentinean seemed to
hang in the air, followed by two outstanding solo goals. Alexis scored the
other goal and Rondón scored a late consolation goal. Barcelona rested many key
players in preparation for the return leg against Real on Wednesday but waltzed
past a Málaga side short on ideas, the home side badly missed their rock in
midfield Toulalan.

Another side who had been struggling away from home is Athlético
Madrid, but buoyed by the appointment of former player Diego Simeone they
recorded their first away win of the
season emphatically too against a disheartened Real Socidad. Falcao opened the
scoring with a penalty after just 3minutes and went on to complete a well
earned hat-trick, Adrian scored the other in a 4-0 thrashing.

Elsewhere in the league it was the Seville derby a game that
has lost its animosity in recent years mainly because of the tragic death of
Sevilla’s Antonio Puetra in 2007. This was the first derby for 1,079 days as
Marca proclaimed was far too long; Spain’s 4th biggest city were
hungry for a derby and their appetite was more than wetted with a memorable 1-1
draw with both sides producing fluid
attacking football. No derby is complete without a red card and Federico Fazio
duly obliged meaning that the 50,000 crammed into the Villaramín went home
satisfied.

At the foot of the table Granada saw themselves dropping
into the relegation zone whilst Villareal clawed their way out. Granada lost
3-0 at Espanyol and duly sacked their manager Fabriciano Gonzalez the man who
took them to two consecutive promotions. The man whose job it is to keep them
up this season is former Athlético Madrid boss Abel Resino. Villareal won 3-0
this evening to see them rise to 17th, but it seems they have fight
the rest of the season out without their Brazilian forward Nilmar who looks
like he could be returning to Brazil as he is set to join Sao Paulo.